2-Chloromethylbenzaldehyde (hereinafter, referred to as 2CMAD in some cases) is useful as an intermediate of medicaments and electronic materials (JP 2006-335737 A, JP 6-016685 A and JP 62-051641 A). However, a specific process for producing it, physical properties thereof and the like are not disclosed in detail.
Solely, JP 2006-335737 A discloses that 2CMAD can be produced by hydrolysis of 1-dichloromethyl-2-chloromethylbenzene (hereinafter, referred to as TCOX in some cases), but a detailed hydrolysis condition is unknown.
By reference to a hydrolysis condition of similar compounds, the present inventors studies in detail and, as a result, confirmed that even when TCOX and water are reacted in line with the scheme described in JP 2006-335737 A, 2CMAD is not obtained at a good yield only by the reaction, and there is the technical problem which should be addressed. In addition, the present inventors knew that the thus obtained 2CMAD has not necessarily sufficiently satisfactory stability at room temperature, and stability in a reaction using it as a raw material is not also necessarily sufficiently satisfactory. Even when an objective substance is obtained at an intermediary yield in a small scale and short time reaction in an laboratory in Examples of JP 2006-335737 A, JP 6-016685 A and JP 62-051641 A, in the case where large scale synthesis at an industrial scale is envisioned, it becomes difficult to use the objective substance as an industrial raw material, if a yield is reduced, and the objective substance is degraded during storage.